Everything an amateur bowyer does to turn a log into a bow throughout the year.
Making bows, longbows and primitive bows with all the tips, tricks and problems.

Saturday, 31 May 2014

Curved Profile Feather Shaper

Simple is best!
The hot wire feather trimmer only gave straight lines and I wanted a fuller parabolic shape to get the arrows to straighten up a bit quicker.
A scrap of brass plate was quickly filed to shape and heated with a blow torch, it worked well, a wooden handle would be a nice addition.
A quick try out of the arrow with its new flights and slightly more tapered tail end. It hit the target nice and straight, excellent!
You can see the uppermost flight is a bit ragged at the edge, but a gentle brush over with a scrap of wet or dry paper cleaned that up. You can see how the very slim nock is filed into the horn reinforcement.
The arrow weighs 308 grains, it's been suggested that 200 is probably the lower limit, which is about what the arrows for the Turkish flight bows weighed.